Market Research:
Types of Data
What is Market Research?
Market research is the collection,
analysis, and interpretation of
information used to develop a marketing
strategy or to solve a marketing problem
This research provides hard data
(information based on supportable fact)
What isn’t Market Research?
Asking your friends or relatives what they
think of your idea
Not systematic
Minimal analysis
Very limited amount of data
Who does Market Research?
Marketing research firms are hired to
collect, analyze, and interpret the data
that is relevant to a specific business’s
marketing effort
These companies work with two types of
information:
Secondary data
Primary data
Primary Data
Unanalyzed, current information
collected by a researcher for a specific
purpose
Pros vs. Cons
More on this later...
Secondary Data
Information collected and published by
others
Secondary Research:
searching for secondary data, then
analyzing and interpreting it
Pros vs. Cons
What kind of Data?
Recall friday’s class:
Conduct a Survey
Conduct a Focus Group
Purchase Data from a Research Firm
Hire Consulting Firm
Watch the media
Sources of Secondary Data
Books
Periodicals
Indexes
Databases
Internet
Consultants
Market Research Professionals
Books
Periodicals
Indexes and Databases
CanCorp
provides financial and management
information extracted from the
corporate documents of over 13,000
Canadian companies
http://www.lib.uwo.ca/business/cancorpdesc
.html
Internet
Search Engines
Listservs
http://www.ualberta.ca/~slis/gui
des/market/guide.htm#Listservs
/Newsgroups
Problems with info from web?
Consultants
Market Research Professionals
Review
What are 5 sources of secondary data?
Why is secondary data useful as a
marketing research tool?
What are its limitations?
Article
What service does GutCheck offer?
What kind of research does it specialize
in?
What kind of research is it not geared
towards?
What is a focus group?
What demographic aspects can the user
select for participants with GutCheck?